Bangalore, 09 April, 2020: HackerEarth, an AI powered accurate developer assessment platform, has announceda non-profit online hackathon, ‘hackCOVID’ in partnership with IIM Bangalore (IIMB).Office of Tejasvi Surya, Member of Parliament – Bengaluru South has also extended support for this social hackathon; he will be part of the jury that determines the best prototype and will share relevant solutions with the government for deployment.The platform is open to the global community of data scientists, social workers, designers and engineers to hack against COVID-19 and is also seeking alliance with corporates.
A single phase hackathon, from April 1sttill May 15th,is an opportunity for developers across the globe to join hands and help address the pandemic together. With over 700 teams currently registered,hackCOVID seeks solutions such as Coronavirus outbreak management system(for healthcare), home-quarantine tracker(for public administration), itinerary management system (for travel/tourism), operations management system(for businesses), AR/VR powered e-learning platforms, to name a few. HackerEarth is looking for a global, viable prototypesthat can be quickly developed using technology and deployed at the ground level, to help industries mitigate and administer the Coronavirus outbreak and its implications.
HackerEarth is in talks with various organisations for partnerships and to play the role of an incubator for relevant hacks that the developers might submit as part of hackCOVID. Currently, Slack, the renowned team-collaboration platform, is on board as a communication partner, alongside Code Tenderloin, a San Francisco-based non-profit workforce development organization for underprivileged communities. Hackbright Academy, a San-Francisco-based coding bootcamp for women has also joined as one of the community partners. IIMB seeks ideas that keep in mind India specific challenges such as, rural/urban demographics, technology penetration levels etc. IIIMB will support hackCOVID with certification and quickly developing & deploying on-ground,India-specific prototypes and solutions, in the space of healthcare and public administration.
Commenting on this initiative, Sachin Gupta, Co-founder & CEO, HackerEarth said, “The pace at which the pandemic is spreading, we need to take swift actions as the outbreak profusely impacts the day-to-day life as well as industrial operations. We are offering a platform for the global developer community to collaborate in finding an effective and quick solution to various aspects of the pandemic outbreak. We are expecting to receive prototypes that can be deployed to the grassroot level, which will be instrumental in containing the current crisis and such crises in the future.”
“When a pandemic like the COVID-19 hits an unsuspecting world, it is imperative that individuals, organizations and governments put their heads together and evolve workable solutions to track and contain the spread of the disease. We at IIM-B seek inputs in the form of a two-stage contest – an ideathon, followed by a technological hackathon. In partnership with HackerEarth, we invite a wide variety of professionals and technologists to participate in this initiative” said R Srinivasan, Professor of Strategy at IIM Bangalore
“Bengaluru being the IT capital of India, can prove to be instrumental in pioneering the journey to a better managed pandemic crisis in the country. We are joining hands with HackerEarth for this initiative and invite all techies to develop solutions that we can implement on the groundlevel to fight the Coronavirus outbreak in India” added Tejasvi Surya, Member of Parliament, Bengaluru South.
